The Future of LiveCode in Education

[Richard Gaskin]

William Prothero wrote:

 > For those already familiar with other programming languages (I’m
 > in that group), the syntax may look archaic and put folks off. It
 > did me, at first. I was used to Fortran, Pascal, C, Lingo, etc,
 > and the Hypercard syntax just seemed primitive compared to modern
 > object-oriented syntax. BUT, when I looked at what Livecode was
 > capable of, its future, and it’s features and lack of limitations
 > that affected my goals, I became an avid user.

FWIW when I present LC at conferences I never mention HyperCard or 
HyperTalk, unless of course someone brings it up specifically during Q&A.

Comparing a vibrant, living system to one whose owner chose to kill it 
rarely makes for a useful story. :)

Besides, most folks today have never used HyperCard, and it's getting 
ever rarer that people I meet have even heard of it.

I've found it better to compare it to things they know, e.g.:

"It's event-drive like JavaScript, but with more intuitive syntax, esp 
for object references: rather than constantly typing 
'document.getElementByID(tElemID)' I just type 'field 1'".

"It's at least as easy to learn as Python if not easier, but has GUI 
objects built in as direct language elements rather than tacked on later 
  as an afterthought through someone else's external package, so your UI 
code flows as smoothly as your business logic."

"It's as productive as VB and in some ways more so, but isn't limited to 
a single vendor's OS, deploying to Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and 
Raspberry Pi as well - with a Server version too."

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com